As bad as the Giants’ offense was playing it was still just 10-0 late in the first half on Sunday. The Giants could’ve had a great opportunity to turn the game around in the second half.Then the Carolina Panthers scored on the last drive of the first half and the first drive of the second. And just like that the rout was on.

Even though the Giants’ defense “battled” in the words of Tom Coughlin the reality was it couldn’t do nearly enough to stop the Panthers from running away with a 38-0 victory.The anemic offense may deserve most of the blame but even the defense knew it didn’t make the stops to give Big Blue a fighting chance.

“We still gave up 17 points in the first half and weren’t able to stop any of the bleeding in the second half” said defensive end Justin Tuck. “I’ve always been taught on defense it doesn’t really matter what the offense does. If you have yardage to stand by you’ve got to stand. The years we had success as a team are the years when the offense is not playing their best the defense picks them up and makes a play gets the momentum swung.”

There was a brief moment where that seemed to happen early in the second quarter with the Giants trailing only 7-0. Cornerback Aaron Ross stepped in front of Panthers receiver Brandon LaFell and picked off a Cam Newton pass deep in Carolina territory. But on four plays starting at the Panthers’ 17 the Giants moved three yards in the wrong direction.